Shows/2023-03-21

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Setlist:

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Set 2:

Encore 1:

Encore 2:

They Might Be Giants
Iron City in Birmingham, AL
March 21, 2023

Fan Recaps and Comments:

Andrew: This was my second show in a month, having attended the Atlanta show on March 11th, and it was at least equally good (which means it was great). The setlist was, of course, similar, but enough of the non-Flood songs were mixed-and-matched to offer a slightly different variety from what was played in Atlanta.

A personal highlight for me was that they played "I'll Sink Manhattan". That's one of my favorite Flansburgh songs, and this was my first time to finally hear it live (it only took 15 shows for this to happen)!

Linnell said that when the horn section is playing next to him, he's sometimes surprised by the blasts from the horns so close by. Then he asked Flansburgh what the term was for when you're accidentally hit by hit by friendly fire. Flansburgh reminded him that his years of military service are long in his past, so he doesn't know.

At one point Linnell pointed out that there sure are a lot of monuments to pagan gods here in the south for it to be considered the Bible Belt--the Parthenon in Nashville, the Vulcan statue in Birmingham, etc. I wonder if he knew that mere blocks away from where he was performing there's a fountain colloquially called "The Satanic Fountain" (actually The Storyteller Fountain), which has sculpted figures that some perceive to be vaguely pagan-looking. He said he'd visited Vulcan while in town and had gone up to the top, which offers a view of the city. The man in the elevator with him had said "They can hear your prayers up here", to which Linnell asked "Prayers to Vulcan?". That apparently got a less than enthusiastic response from the man. (It was also a minor coincidence that Linnell spoke at length about Vulcan, since, as a resident here, it's literally what I picture in my mind every time I hear "The Statue Got Me High".)

Flansburgh added that he'd eaten some fried shrimp at a restaurant in town and there definitely seemed to be some church ladies seated near him, before clarifying that we serve but one god, the god of fried food.

After the first verse of "How Can I Sing Like a Girl", Flansburgh had to stop the song because the guys from the horn section, not on stage at the moment, had left their mics on and he was hearing them back stage in his earpiece while trying to sing. He said it was like a trial version of mental illness. After a bit more jokey banter they started the song over without a hitch. (This moment did lead to more occasional banter during the show about the eff-ups being the things people come to the shows for.)

Before they played "Number Three", Flansburgh jokingly said it was a song written in the style of the band Alabama (he wasn't sure if Alabama were as popular here in the south as they are in Brooklyn). Having seen a number of TMBG shows here in the south over the years, it seems they enjoy a good reference to the band Alabama when they're here.

Between "Number Three" and "Dead" they turned the house lights up and improvised some mini-songs about the appearance of various audience members. Not sure if there is an official name for this that anyone ever adds to the setlists on the wiki so I left it out when I was transcribing the setlist here at the time of this posting.

I could ramble on, but suffice to say it was a very solid show full of the great songs and witty banter one expects.

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